Letters to the Editor
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Carmine
I never really got the impression that Carmine is really too strategic in his moves. He does what he does, knows his position, but never really strikes out or tries to take more. I think its just the fact that Carmine doesn't step on anyone's toes and is not a threat, not to mention the fact that he is his father's son, is the only reason Carmine still exists and is respected.
Even Carmine's conversation with Tony - he doesn't want to be boss, he knows the life of the Mafia will not bring him happiness, he would probably be in a different line of work if he wasn't born into the family. But Carmine likes the money and being rich, and its all he knows. His father lived to be old, so Carmine feels he will too. And he probably will.
I think when he brought Tony to see Phil, he was honestly looking to create a truce between them. He looked genuinely confused at Phil's response, while Tony's expression was that he wasn't the least bit suprised. Its like Carmine never lost his innocence.
Looking back at that scene I was quite suprised that Tony didn't become suspicious and feel like he was walking into an ambush. Tony is smart enough to be paranoid when he should be, knows an ambush when he sees one.
I don't think at this point Tony cares. He is despondant everywhere. He seems to be more pre-occupied with life and its meaning, and his current family crisis than with his business.
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Current State of Affairs
Betty Boop, you beat me to the punch!
I too see a real parallel between the way the series is turning out and the current state of politics in America. I love all the little clues Chase has been giving along the way.
Carmela is the conservative apologist for the Power(s) That Be (not necessarily "Georgie" but whoever it is that actually pulling the strings). She's been given the choice to look reality squarely in the face a number of times, but has chosen a life of complacency while she enables and even supports the actions of th PTB. Meadow is a lot like the current Democratic Party in that she's clearly aware of what's going on, takes on the identity of the victim ("You will always be more important") yet still plays the complacency game right alongside Carmela, most likely because she reaps a certain amount of benefits from PTB. This past episode brought home the fact that denial and complacency will not stave off the evil seeping into their lives.
I think the idea of AJ whacking Tony is interesting. AJ is the only one who is able to see the world clearly. Although he's on the road to radicalism (reading Al Jazeera), he is still dependent upon Carmela's cooking and suffers because he has been poorly prepared for the real world. He is paying for this through his depression and institutionalization. It will be interesting to see if he rises above it, destroys himself, destroys his father (maybe by talking to the feds) or eventually becomes another version of Tony.
The dumped asbestos with NYC in the background was quite a commentary. A result of a quibble between The Power(s) That Be, Tony was clearly responsible for the mess. It will be interesting to see if AJ is the one to put an end to all of this.
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A rule is a rule, but...
AJ is essentially Little Carmine, sheltered from The Life by his brutish and fantastically successful father. Well-liked in spite of his flaws (though I would stop short of saying Little Carmine is respected). Intellectually curious if not too bright, and often showing glimmers of surprising good sense. Carmine had a shot at the Big Chair and was egged on by some bad advice, but in the end walked away, and to me it appears he will escape The Life with his life intact. The better angel of his nature, his wife, got in his ear.
Who's in Phil's ear? Butchie. I agree that guy is the Devil. Put another way, he's Cheney to Phil's George W.
Which brings me to the fate of Tony, his immediate family, and Melfi. I've said it here before: whacking civilians is an unbreakable taboo, unless they are a witness for the prosecution or if they incur an irreconcilable financial debt or commit another direct transgression, none of which is yet the case. And Phil himself has said he won't whack a boss (having recently become a boss I think would only reinforce that).
But Al Qaeda doesn't play by those rules. And now Tony has ratted on them. And in responding to Al Qaeda (or at least in taking action amid the chaos Al Qaeda created), the US broke a few rules itself.
As for Tony, it was Butchie who wanted him whacked in the first place. He even referred to the Soprano crew's impulsive murder of Fat Dom as "9-11 all over again. They wanted our attention, they got our attention."
So the bottom line is I'm a bit more scared for the innocent bystanders than I once was. Rules are rules, but with Cheney and Al Qaeda running the show, no-one is really safe.
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A way out ....
I keep thinking that what will happen is that he will finally bail out of this and choose his family over the professional life, as it were. Years of Pyschobabble as he tried to catch a peak of Dr. Malfi's underwear when she crossed her legs has softened him up.
Soooo....
He finally decides to get the hell out of there after the feds finally have a solid RICO case on him AND his fingering of the Arabs helps the terrorism agents that have been hanging around Satriale's lately.
In the end he winds up living a life akin to the one he was living in the dream he had after Uncle Joon shot his ass.
I still wish he'd nail Dr. Malfi a few times.
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I guess that makes Tony...
Saddam?
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More parallels to current state of affairs
Speaking of allegories to the current administration, isn't it the Bushies' tendency to compartmentalize one of the most infuriating and reality-avoiding aspects of their existence? Mary Cheney works for her father's reelection campaign, which is premised on the notion that same-sex marriage is a threat to Western civilization, and then neither she nor her father can understand why the media would be curious about the child she plans on raising with her same-sex partner. Wolfowitz rails on third-world corruption from his World Bank pulpit and then can't imagine why it's a problem that he set up his girlfriend with a job that pays better than the Secretary of State's. None of them seem to get why it's a problem that they don't have children serving in Iraq and didn't serve in Vietnam themselves. And they and the Washington Press Corps have no problem whatsoever getting together once a year for a night of drunken revelrie and giggling about missing WMDs. Why? Because they have no ability to see--or choose not to see--that what they do for a living has anything to do with who they are as individuals. I'm sure, just like Tony, any of them would insist that he or she is basically "a good guy."
Man, Washington, DC is the capital of compartmentalization. This is a place where people pride themselves on ripping their political adversaries a new one and then going out for drinks with them afterwards. And to some extent, it's good to compartmentalize; otherwise, we'd be unable to get through our day, much like AJ. But the compartmentalization with the Bushies has gone well past the point of absurdity.